Prong

Cleansing (Epic)
by Paul Lee

With all the subtly of a chainsaw, “Another Worldly Device” rips into your head as Prong prove once again that they are masters of modern thrash. Their new CD, Cleansing, is a dangerous and ultra dark creation reflecting the blackness of ourselves and our world. Cleansing seems even more direct and pissed-off than Prong’s previous works, but is just as incredibly creative.

The way Prong combines different textures (not all rough) and styles give them a huge razors edge over their competition. It’s not that they’re better than their contemporaries like Pantera or Megadeth, but they’ve created their own sub-genre of precision chaos. Cleansing continues the seething and original rage of Beg To Differ and Prove You Wrong.

There’s something about the primal beats that come from Prong songs that make you want to start hopping around wildly. This is even more true with Cleansing than before. This is like dance music for the damned and there isn’t an ounce of devilishness about it. With Paul Raven (ex-Killing Joke) bashing his bass and John Bechdel on programming and keyboards, Prong have forged forward and added more variation to an already diverse and gripping sound. The brooding and enraged Tommy Victor spouts his views of the world with his vicious voice and grinding axe while Ted Parsons hammers away at his drum kit creating the infectious and vertebrae-endangering beats.

With missilelike pace and precision, songs like “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck” and “Cut Rate” to the more chugging-paced tunes (like the pace of a mammoth oil drill and no less exciting) like “Test” and “Out of this Misery,” Prong varies their extremity and always stay interesting. Not a single ballad or soft tune lies amidst the wreckage in this collection of twelve (though there are a couple of ever-so-slightly less intense but terribly dark songs like “One Outnumbered” and “Sublime”). As always, Victor writes clever and creative lyrics that perfectly accompany the extremeness of Prong’s sonic assault.

I won’t say that Cleansing is better than the two predecessors, because they were both excellent in their own rights. Cleansing is another opus that continues the great and influential (and breakneck) pace that Prong started for heavy and innovative rock. Lots of people will likely be turned onto the Prong sound by the greatness of Cleansing and they’ll do it without a single radio-friendly song (because they don’t have a one!). Keep a lookout for these guys (and look for the lamb eyeball album cover that is oh so tasty looking) and be prepared to have your entire body assaulted by the sonic magnificence that is.